Projects

The following project descriptions are of systems that we will attempt to construct this summer. Additional project ideas may be added in the near future.

Bacterial Melanogenesis

This project is an extension of work that was done at Biosource Genetics Corporation in 1990. What we would like to do is program bacteria to produce melanin in response to a red light stimulus. This inducible melanin production has various applications including making melanin for monitoring cellular processes. In this way, melanin would serve as a biomarker or indicator similar to the GFP but would be easily visible to the naked eye.

Ethylene Biosensor

NOTE: This project has been put on the back burner.

During one of our brainstorming sessions we were discussing possible biosensors and came up with a fairly practical project idea: an ethylene biosensor. Why sense ethylene? Mature fruit produce and release ethylene as they ripen. Measuring the concentration of gaseous ethylene on or near the surface of the ripening fruit would allow for the indirect measurement of its degree of ripeness.

Synthetic Biological Clock

NOTE: This project has been put on the back burner.

The synthetic biological clock was one of our earliest project ideas and involves the coupling of Elowitz and Leibler's repressilator system to some actuator such as fluorescence or aroma generation. We would like to link MIT's 2006 iGEM project to the repressilator and create an aroma therapy clock in addition to linking green, yellow and red fluorescent proteins to the repressilator to make a molecular traffic light. Future applications of controlled synthetic oscillatory systems include internal, autonomous drug delivery technology.

References

Directed Angiogenesis

Natural phototaxis systems can be exploited to direct engineered bacteria to target areas within the body. These living machines are programmed so that once they have arrived, they produce and secrete their payload (e.g., VEGF).

References

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Biofuel Manufacturing

Coming up with alternative fuels is a real-world problem. We're interested in using cheap, renewable feedstock to power efficient biofuel production. More to come!